Kurt: IOU
by Kindre Turnany
Summary: The April Fool's chapter of By Any Other Name. It was only up for one day, but I had a request to post it from someone who missed it on the first. IOU was in place of chapter 65 of BAON.


**Kurt: IOU**

Something about this was wrong, but Kurt couldn't quite place what. He ran his fingers under the shimmering waterfall, trying to make sense of everything. His hand caught on something. He turned to face the waterfall, reaching more deliberately behind it to grasp and pull out whatever he had touched. Puck fell through and splashed into the clear water at Kurt's feet. The tiny gold and orange fish swam away, frightened by the impact.

_Dreamfish. _That was when he realized none of this was real. No wonder it felt off. At least it wasn't a nightmare.

"Thanks, Kurt. I owe you one," Puck says. He hands Kurt a slip of paper and saunters off into the lake. Kurt unfold the paper, expecting it to say "IOU," but it's a picture of a ballroom. He falls in and finds himself dressed in a velvet doublet and fur cape.

Brittany runs up to him dressed exactly like a princess. She giggles and rams a horn into Kurt's forehead. Blood clouds his vision, but he feels no pain.

"Be the unicorn, Kurt!" Brittany calls out as she runs off with Santana and Tina.

Fire erupts from the center of the ballroom floor, which is overgrown with vines and trees with huge roots poking through the tile. Quinn climbs through the tile. Her skin is scaled and reflects gold in the light that streams through arched windows lining the walls. She screams, clawing her way to the surface, and flames fall past her lips.

Robin chuckles behind him, and Kurt wakes sweating.

"Dude, are you okay?" Puck is there. It takes a moment for Kurt to remember why. They'd had to talk. About a lot of things. The most jarring of which had been Puck admitting he cut himself. Kurt still didn't know what to think of that, but he thought Puck was going to be okay.

"Yeah, just dreaming." He rubbed the sleep from his eyes.

"About him?"

"Well it was fine for a while and then… him. Yeah." Kurt sighed. He just wanted his dreams to be his own again.

Puck placed a finger softly beneath Kurt's chin and tilted his face up to look at him. "It's okay."

Kurt pushed himself forward, falling into Puck's arms and clinging to him. "I know. It just doesn't seem to matter that he's dead when I'm still asleep. Or sometimes when I'm awake."

"I'll protect you then."

Kurt pulls back a little. "Puck, you have your own problems. You don't need to deal with mine."

"I don't care. You're important to me." Puck struggles for a moment then sighed. "You're probably the most important person in the world to me, Kurt."

"I…" Kurt didn't know what to say. "I;m glad to have you for a friend. You're important to me too."

"That's not what I meant." He sounded frustrated.

"What then?" Kurt couldn't think of anything else.

Puck struggled. Kurt could see it, even if he couldn't tell what bothered him. Finally Puck placed his hands on Kurt's shoulders and leaned in to press their lips together. The warmth of the kiss lingered as Puck pulled back and repeated, "You're the most important person in the world to me, Kurt."

"Oh," It came out almost more a gasp than a word. Kurt's fingers inched up toward his mouth.

"I was kind of afraid you'd freak out and attack me. This is a little better." Puck's mouth twitched into a smile and then back to normal.

Kurt wanted to say something, but he couldn't think of what. He stammered over something that might have been words once. When Puck laughed at him, Kurt gave up with a groan. Then he grabbed Puck by the front of his shirt and pulled him in for another, much longer, kiss. "I love you too," he gasped when they finally pulled apart.

"Congratulations!" Brittany shouted as she threw open the door.

"Brittany, I'm not sure this is a good time," Kurt choked out as he realized everyone knew about him and Puck now. He caught a glimpse of Quinn running away crying, nothing like the dragon Quinn of his dream.

"You have a guest though," Brittany insisted. "You can't be rude to your guest."

Kurt had a lot of guests. He was rood to them regularly. But he realized Brittany meant someone different when David Karofsky walked through his bedroom door looking more like he was walking into a cannibal camp right before a feast.

"What do you want," Kurt snapped, clinging to Puck's arm and remembering all the times Dave had bullied him.

"I just wanted to say I'm gay and in love with you."

"Bitch, I said it first," Puck shouted.

Dave only shrugged, looking at Kurt and shuffling his feet.

Suddenly Kurt had an amazing idea. "THREESOME!" he yelled, leaping to his feet. Puck and Dave both grinned. Brittany left as Dave, Puck, and Kurt climbed onto the bed together, all grinning shyly.

Later, as Kurt lay in his bed with Puck on his left and Dave on his right, he noticed a poster attached to the ceiling. It read, "Congrats on the sex."


End file.
